The Satan Pit
by ponylkb
Summary: As Rose and Peter battle the murderous Ood, the Doctor finds his every belief being challenged to the core as he faces off against an enemy that defies the impossible. With the planet threatening to fall into the black hole, the Doctor must make the ultimate sacrifice as the Satan Pit opens.
1. Chapter 1

The infected Ood were getting closer and closer.

"Open fire!" Jefferson ordered. He and the female guard then brought up their guns and began shooting as Peter, who's gun would risk blowing a hole in the base's hull, did his best to protect Rose from the backfire as they stood up against to sealed door.

In the control room Zachary had noticed that the tremor shaking the base was beginning to calm down.

"We're stabilising, we've got orbit" He said as the metal shields above closed back up. With the Oods no longer a problem Rose ran over to the speaker on the control panel.

"Doctor!?" She called down it. "Doctor? Ida? Can you hear me?" She asked when she got no response.

"Open door twenty five" The computer said as the door behind Peter, Jefferson and the female guard opened up. Jefferson and the female guard had wheeled round and brought up their guns ready to fire.  
"It's me! It's me! But they're coming" Danny cried as he came round the door and shut it behind him. "It's the Ood they've gone mad" He added.

"How many of them?" Jefferson asked.

"All of them! All fifty!" Danny replied.

"Out the way" Jefferson told him as he stepped up to the door.  
"But they're armed..." Danny began protesting.

"Danny out the way!" Jefferson ordered as he pushed him aside and began opening the door.

"It's the interface device! I don't know how but they're using them as a weapon" Danny told them as Jefferson swung the door open. On the other side the red eyed infected Ood were stood with their communication ball weapons up and ready to use. The front one moved forward as soon as it could and pressed it's device into the female guard's head, fatally electrocuting her. Jefferson, Peter and Danny jumped back as Jefferson opened fired on the Ood.

Zachary had decided to rejoin his crew. But as he left the control room he saw a group of the Ood coming down the corridor towards him and turned on his heel and back into the room.  
"Lock down! Seal door one" He ordered the computer as he pressed the command into a control panel. "Jefferson what's happening there?" He then called out as ran over to the main control panel.

"I've got very little ammunition sir how about you?" Jefferson replied via his wrist communicator.

"All I've got is bolt gun, all of one bolt, I can take out a grand total of one Ood! Fat lot of good that is!" Zachary replied as he went over to a small wall covering and took out a large gun.

"Given the emergency I recommend strategy nine" Jefferson replied.  
"Strategy nine agreed" Zachary agreed reluctantly. "Right we need to get everyone together, Rose? What about Ida and the Doctor? Any word?" He asked.

"I can't get a reply, just nothing! I keep trying but it's..." Rose replied, trailing off as she started to sound upset. Suddenly the communications come back to life.

"No sorry I'm fine still here" The Doctor's voice suddenly come through.  
"Should have said you stupid..." Rose gasped in relief, accidentally causing the communications to screech loudly as she clamped down on the button.  
"Wow! Careful!" The Doctor as the screech come into his ear. "Anyway it's both of us, me and Ida, hello" He called. "But the seal opened up, it's gone, all we've got left is this pit" He added.

"How deep is it?" Zachary asked.

"Can't tell looks like it goes on forever" He replied. Peter took the speaker off Rose.

"The pit is open, that's what the voice said" He said down the line.

"But there's nothing? There's nothing coming out?" Zachary asked.

"No, no sign of the beast" The Doctor replied.

"It said Satan" Peter said.

"Wouldn't have thought you religious Peter?" The Doctor asked back.

"No but, is there such a thing?" He asked. "Doctor? There can't be such a thing surely?" He asked when no response came.

"Ida? I recommend that you withdraw immediately" Zachary then ordered.

"But we've come all this way!" Ida protested.

"Ok that was an order with immediate effect withdraw, when that thing opened the whole planet shifted, one more inch and we'd have fallen into the black hole so this thing stops right now" Zachary told her.  
"But it's not much better up there with the Ood" Ida replied.

"I'm initiating strategy nine now I need the two of you back up top immediately no arguments" Zachary told her. But Ida then turned off her communications "Ida? Ida!?" Zachary called as the line went dead.  
"What do you think?" Ida asked as she turned to face the Doctor.

"He gave an order" He replied as they walked up to the edge of the pit.

"Yeah but what do you think?" She asked.  
"It said I am the temptation" He replied as he rested a foot on the symbol covered edge.

"Yeah but if there's something in there why'd it still hiding?" Ida asked.

"Maybe we opened the prison but not the cell" The Doctor replied.

"We should go down" Ida said quietly. "I'd go, what about you?" She asked him.

"Oh! Oh in a second but then again..." The Doctor began but trailed off with a slight chuckle. "That is so human, where angles fear to tread, even now standing on the edge, it's that feeling you get hey?" He asked Ida, who was staring at the pit with obvious temptation. "Right at the back of your head, that impulse that strange little impulse that mad little voice saying go on go on go over go on" He whispered. "Maybe it's relaying on that?" He asked.  
"Doctor?" Peter's voice suddenly came through on his helmets communications, Ida having only turned off her's.  
"Yeah what is it?" The Doctor replied.

"You talk about human temptation and impulse, you wanna know how this looks from my point of view?" Peter asked down the speaker whilst Rose, Jefferson and Danny listened curiously. "Wolves are some of the most impulsive and reckless creatures out there, because of this we need a strong anchor to keep us safe" Peter continued.

"Your instincts?" The Doctor guessed.

"Yeah, humans may feel theirs occasionally but wolves, we're actually ruled by it, by what's right and wrong, what should be and shouldn't be" Peter told him.

"And what's it telling you?" He asked.

"That whatever is down there, whatever has infected Toby and the Ood is wrong, really wrong as in shouldn't be able to exist at all, whatever it is it should be left to the black hole" Peter replied, sounding very serious and worried. "In fact, this whole planet doesn't feel right and my gut is screaming at me to run from it" He added.

"When did it start telling you to?" The Doctor asked.

"Pretty much the second we got here, it's been growing ever since" He replied.

"Why didn't you say anything?" The Doctor asked him.  
"I don't like to presume, besides I get this feeling most places we go" Peter half joked. "But never this strong I think you should turn back" He added. The Doctor considered for a moment.

"For once in my life Peter, officer Scott, I am going to say," He began to say to both Peter and Ida.

"Retreat, oh now I know I'm getting old" He said. "Rose, Peter we're coming back" He confirmed to his companions.  
"Glad to here it" Peter replied.

"And I have to say Peter, not many can stop me like that" The Doctor told him.

"Well what can I say? A lot of people have told me I'm born to rule, eventually" Peter joked just as Jefferson readied his gun and pointed it at Toby, who had since come around.  
"What are you doing?" Rose asked him.

"He's infected, he brought that thing on board you saw it" Jefferson replied as he prepared to shoot a terrified Toby.

"Are you gonna start shooting your own people now? Is that what your gonna do? Is it?" Rose asked, walking over to him.

"If necessary" Jefferson replied.

"Well you'll have to shoot me if necessary so what's it going to be?" Rose asked before she crouched down in front of Toby. "Look at his face, whatever it was it must have passed into the Ood, you saw it happen, he's clean" She told Jefferson whilst also looking to Peter and Danny.

"Any sign of trouble I shoot him" Jefferson said as he lowered his gun and backed off. "Peter? You said you were trained? Your gun maybe risky to use in here but with a good shot, can I count on you in my absence?" He then asked. Peter looked Toby dead in the eye whilst he considered.

"Yeah" He replied.

"What!? How can you agree to that?" Rose asked in surprise, looking at him in shock.

"That thing that took over him is dangerous, more so than anything I've ever seen, it has to be stopped" He told her.

"By shooting an innocent man?" She asked, standing up in her sudden anger at him.

"If I have to" He replied bluntly.

"How can you be so cold!?" She snapped at him.

"Because sometimes you have to be!" He snapped back. "It got inside my head Rose! It pulled things out that were buried deep and it will do the same to you if allowed to carry on!" He then warned her.

"But why kill? Is it because you've been trained to so that's what you'll do?" Rose asked. Peter sighed.

"You presume everything I do and the way I act is because of my career?" He asked her.

"Isn't it?" She asked, sounding slightly fearful.

"No," He told her.

"Then why?" Rose asked him.  
"Your forgetting I'm not human, like I told the Doctor my mind is different to yours, and it's that unlimited amount of pity your kind has that's going to get us killed here" He told her.

"The Doctor's not human, he would never..." Rose began to defend.

"We both know what the Doctor's capable of, difference is I show what I'm willing to do much more openly than he does" Peter told her. Rose didn't seem to have a response so instead turned back to Toby and crouched back down in front of him.

"You all right?" She asked him softly.

"Yeah, I'm, don't know" He replied shakily.

"Can you remember anything?" Rose asked.

"Just, just that he was so angry, he was fury and, rage and death, it was him, it was the devil" Toby gasped.

"Come here" Rose told him as she gave him a hug.

Far down below the Doctor and Ida were heading back toward the capsule.  
"What's strategy nine?" The Doctor asked.

"Open the airlocks, we'll be safe inside the lock down, the Ood will get thrown out into the vacuum" Ida replied.

"So we're going back to a slaughter?" The Doctor questioned as they reached the capsule.

"The devils work" Ida replied as they glanced back in the direction of the pit. "Ok we're in bring us up" She then message after they'd got into the capsule and she'd turned back on her communications.

"Sanction in three two one" Jefferson called as he started to start the lifting procedures as everyone apart from Toby gathered round. Suddenly all the lights and power went out across the whole base, including the capsule.

"This is the darkness this is my domain" The beast's voice as the screen on the main control panel Rose, Peter, Jefferson and Danny were stood at changed to show some of the Ood addressing the camera. "You little things that live in the light, clinging to your feeble suns which die" It continued to say, using the Ood to speak.  
"That's not the Ood, something's talking through them" Zachary said over the communications as he as well as the Doctor and Ida got the same message on screens on the main control panel and in the capsule.

"Only the darkness remains" The beast continued to say.  
"This is captain Zachary Cross Flane of sanctuary base six represented the Torchwood archive, you will identify yourself" Zachary ordered the beast.

"You know my name" It told him.  
"What do you want?" Zachary asked.

"You will die here all of you, this planet is your grave" It told them all coldly.


	2. Chapter 2

Toby had begun to rock back and forward on the floor.

"It's him! It's him! It's him!" He whispered to himself.

"If you are the beast then answer me this?" The Doctor asked it. "Which one? Hum? Cause the universe has been busy since you've been gone, there's more religions than there are planets in the sky" He said. "The Arkiphets, Orkology, Christianity, Pash Pash, New Dadaism, San Klah, Church of the Tin Vagabond, which devil are you then?" He asked.

"All of them" The Beast replied.

"What then your the truth behind the myth?" The Doctor asked.

"This one knows me as I know him" It replied. "The killer of his own kind" It added. The Doctor flinched for a moment.  
"How did you end up on this rock?" He chose to ask.

"The Disciples of the Light rose up against me and chained me in the pit for all eternity" The beast replied.  
"When was this?" The Doctor asked.

"Before time" It replied.  
"What does that mean?" The Doctor asked with a scoff.

"Before time" It repeated.

"What does before time mean!?" The Doctor asked, getting angry now.  
"Before time and light and space and matter, before the cataclysm, before this universe was created" The beast replied, using every single Ood on the base to talk.

"That's impossible, no life could have existed back then" The Doctor told it.

"Is that your religion?" It asked.

"It's a belief" He replied.

"You know nothing, all of you, so small" The beast then said. "The captain so scared of command" It said to Zachary. "The soldier haunted by the eyes of his wife" It said to Jefferson. "The scientist still running from daddy" It said to Ida. "The little boy who lied" It said to Danny. "The virgin" It said to Toby. "The imperial highness terrified of his own title, he who will face the dark bird's return" It told Peter. "And the lost girl so far away from home, the valiant child who will die in battle so very soon" It told Rose, who picked up the speaker.  
"Doctor what does that mean?" She asked quietly.

"Rose don't listen" He told her reassuringly.  
"What does it mean?" She asked.

"You will die and I will live" The beast replied as the screens suddenly changed to show a hologram of a red horned beast that let out a roar, making everyone jump back in fright.

"What the hell was that!?" Danny gasped.

"I had that thing inside my head" Toby whispered.

"Doctor what did it mean?" Rose asked down the speaker.  
"What do we do? Jefferson!?" Danny asked Jefferson.

"Captain what's the situation on strategy nine?" Jefferson asked via his wrist communicator as everyone began to panic slightly.  
"The dark bird? It means Rasputin? But he's dead? Surely he's dead?" Peter asked quietly to himself.  
"We've lost pictures Mr Jefferson" Zachary said.  
"Doctor how did it know all that? What does it mean?" Rose asked the Doctor as the panic level rose.

"Stop! Stop it!" The Doctor called to everyone, trying to calm them down. When that failed he clamped down on the speaker, causing a screech to ring out across the base, stopping everyone.

"Listen to me! That thing is playing on very basic fears, darkness, childhood nightmares, all that stuff" He told them"  
"But that's how the devil works" Danny told him.

"Or a good physiologist" The Doctor replied.  
"How did it know about my father?" Ida asked him. The Doctor failed to answer for a moment.  
"Ok but what makes his version of the truth any better than mine?" He questioned. "Cause I tell what I can see, humans, brilliant humans who travel all the way across space flying in a tiny little rocket right into the orbit of a black hole! Just for the sake of discovery! That's amazing!" He told them. "And Peter your a Sayain! One of the oldest and strongest races out there! No one dares pick a fight with any of you and no one ever will! All that instinct, guts and sheer brilliance you have isn't just you being a wolf it's you being connected to your world and people in a way other races could only dream of!" He then told Peter. "So do you hear me? Amazing all of you! Captain, his officer, his elder, his juniors, his friends all with one advantage, the beast is alone we are not, if we can use that to fight against him..." The Doctor began to tell them all when suddenly the capsule jerked violently. Up above, level with Rose, Peter and the others, the cable had started to break before it suddenly snapped and sped down the shaft.  
"The cable's snapped!" Ida shouted, hearing it race down towards them.  
"Get out!" The Doctor urged as he pushed her out of the capsule before running out himself, pushing Ida to the ground as she stooped to look back at the hurtling cable. A moment later, using the massive speed it had picked up on it's miles down to them, it slammed down.

"Doctor! We lost the cable! Doctor are you all right!?" Rose called down the speaker. "Doctor!?" She shouted when she got no response.

"Coms are down" Zachary told them. "I've still got life signs we've lost the capsule, there's no way out, they're stuck down there" He realised.

As the Doctor and Ida picked themselves up off the ground as the dust settled they saw the ruined and crushed shape of the capsule.

"How much air have we got?" The Doctor asked.

"Sixty minutes," Ida replied, checking her suit's wrist dial. "Fifty five" She corrected.

Up above Rose, Peter, Jefferson and Danny were staring down the shaft.

"But we've gotta bring them back" Rose told Jefferson.

"They're ten miles down we haven't got another ten miles of cable" He told her just as a large bang rang out. All turning towards it they saw that door twenty five's control panel was being hacked into. "Captain situation report?" Jefferson asked over his wrist communicator. Zachary ran over to the control room door and looked out of the small window at the top of it. The Ood were standing right outside and the front one was cutting into the door with a pair of industrial sized cutters.

"It's the Ood they're cutting through the door bolts, they're breaking in" Zachary told everyone.

"Yeah same on door twenty five" Jefferson replied.

"How long will it take?" Peter asked.

"Well it's only a basic frame so, ten minutes," He replied as the Ood outside severed another bolt. "Eight" Jefferson corrected.

"I've got a security frame, might last a bit longer but that doesn't help you" Zachary told them.  
"Right so we need to stop them or get out or both" Rose said.

"I'll take both yeah?" Danny said sarcastically. "How?" He asked.

"You heard the Doctor, why do you think that thing cut him off? Cause he was making sense, he was telling you to think your way out of this, come on!" Rose encouraged, looking at them all. "Besides we need some lights, there's got to be some sort of power somewhere?" She asked.

"There's nothing I can do, some captain stuck in here pressing buttons!" Zachary said frustratingly.  
"That's what the Doctor meant, press the right buttons" Rose said.  
"They've gutted the generators" Zachary told her. "But the rocket's got an independent supply, if I could reroute that," He suddenly realised. "Mr Jefferson? Open the bio pass condiments, override safety" He ordered.  
"Opening bio pass condiments sir" Jefferson confirmed as he went over to the control panel and inputted the command.

"Channeling rocket fuel in three two one, power" Zachary called out as he pressed his buttons on the control panel in front of him. The light and power came back on.  
"There we go! Let there be light" Danny said.  
"What about that strategy nine thing? Can we still do that?" Peter asked.

"Not enough power, need one hundred percent" Jefferson replied.

"Right we need a way out, Zac Mr Jefferson you start working on that" Rose said before turning to Toby. "Toby what about you?" She asked.

"I'm not a soldier I can't do anything!" He snapped as he stood up.

"No your the archeologist, what do you know about the pit?" Rose asked.  
"Nothing we can't even translate the language" He said. Rose sighed and started to turn away. "No hold on, maybe," Toby said, stopping her.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Since that thing was inside my head the letters make more sense" He told her.  
"Well, get to work, anything you can translate just anything" Rose told him. "As for you Danny boy your in charge of the Ood, any chance of stopping them?" She asked, as she and Peter walked over to him.

"I don't know" He said.  
"Then find out, sooner we get control of the base soon we can get the Doctor out so find a way" Rose told him before going over and looking down the shaft.

Far down below Ida was savaging the capsule's wreckage.

"We've got all this cable we might as well use it" She told the Doctor. "The power's disconnected so we can adapt it, feed it through" She added as she started picking it up.

"Then what?" The Doctor asked.

"Abseil into the pit" She replied.

"Abseil right?" The Doctor repeated.

"We're running on air with no way back up it's the only thing we can do, even if it's the last thing we ever achieve" Ida said.

"I'll get back, Rose and Peter are up there" The Doctor told her.

"Well maybe the key to that is finding out what's in the pit" She said.

"Well it's half of a good plan" He said with a shrug.

"What's the other half?" Ida asked.

"I go down, not you" He replied.

Far above everyone was still trying to find a way out.

"Junctions five six seven," Jefferson was saying as he pressed commands into the control panel, glancing at door twenty five as the Ood continued to cut through it. Toby was sat nearby busy writing up translations whilst Danny was stood with Rose and Peter as he tried to find a way to stop the Ood via the computer in front of them.

"There's all sorts of viruses that could stop the Ood trouble is we haven't got them on board" He told them.  
"Well that's handy on the lists of things we haven't got, we haven't got a swimming pool either or a Tescos" Rose said sarcastically. Suddenly the screen flashed up a affirmative sign.  
"Oh my god! It says yes! I can do it! Hypothetically if you flip the monitor and broadcast a flare it can disrupt the telepathy, brainstorm!" Danny said excitedly.  
"What happens to the Ood?" Peter asked.

"It'll tank them! Spark out!" He replied excitedly.

"Well then there we are! Do it!" Rose said with a grin. Danny suddenly hesitated.

"No but, I'd have to transmit from the central monitor, we need to go to Ood habitation" He told them just as the Ood cut through another bolt on the door.

"Then that's what we'll do" Peter said. "Mr Jefferson? Anyway out?" He asked, walking over to him.

"Just about, there's a network of maintenance tunnels running underneath the base we should be able to gain access from here" He replied.

"Ventilation shafts?" Peter asked with a grin.

"Yeah I appreciate the reference but there's no ventilation, no air in fact at all, designed for machines not lifeforms" Jefferson explained.  
"But I can manipulate the oxygen field from here, create discreet pockets of atmosphere," Zachary said as he looked over a 3D hologram of the tunnels. "If I can control it manually from here I can filter you from the network" He said.

"Right so we go down and you make the air follow us? By hand?" Rose asked.

"You wanted me pressing buttons" Zachary replied.

"Yeap I asked for it, ok we need to get to Ood habituation work out a route" Rose then said.


	3. Chapter 3

The Doctor and Ida had returned to the pit with the cable.

"That should hold it" Ida said as she finished securing the cable and a winch they'd found. "How it going?" She asked the Doctor, who had the other end of the cable secured to his belt, as he back over to the pit.

"Fine should work, doesn't feel like such a good idea now" He replied as he stepped up onto the edge and looked down. "Ha there it is again, that itch, go down go down go down," He said excitedly.

"The urge to jump, know where it comes from? That sensation? Genetic heritage, ever since we were primates in the trees" Ida told told him. "It's our bodies way of testing us, calculating whether or not we can reach the next branch" She added.

"No that's not it," The Doctor replied, turning back to face her. "That's too kind, it's not the urge to jump it's deeper than that, it's the urge to fall" He said before suddenly stepping back and plummeting down into the pit.

"Doctor!" Ida cried before she used her suit's wrist dial to halt the cable so that the Doctor came to halt with his feet against the wall. "You ok?" Ida asked.

"Not bad thanks, the wall of the pit seems to be the same as the cavern, just not much of it" He replied. "There's a crust about twenty feet down and then, nothing just the pit" He added as he looked down at the darkness. "Ok then, lower me down" He called.  
"Well here we go then" Ida said before restarting the winch before the Doctor was lowered down into the pit.

The bolts of door twenty five were now nearly all severed as everyone prepared to go down into the maintenance tunnels via a hole in the grated floor.

"Danny!" Rose called, seeing him linger at the computer screen, as Peter and Jefferson lifted away the large covering.

"Hold on it's just conforming" He replied as the computer worked through the command.

"Danny we gotta go now! Come on!" Jefferson shouted. After another moment the screen confirmed it was done as a chip board popped out of it that Danny grabbed.  
"Put this in the monitor and it's a bad time to be and Ood" He said as he ran over to the others.

"We're coming back you got that? We're coming back to this room and we'll get the Doctor out" Rose said as they all stood over the hole.

"Ok Danny you go first and navigate us there then Peter you protect the front way through then Rose, Toby and I'll go last and defend the rear position now come on! As quick as you can!" Jefferson ordered as they all started scrambling down into the hole.

"God it stinks" Rose said she climbed into the tunnel, brushed steel on all sides.  
"Try being me" Peter joked over his shoulder at her as he gagged slightly on the smell.

"You ok?" Rose asked him as he started coughing and tried to block it from entering his nose with his hand.

"Yeah just trying not breath through my nose, or my mouth for that matter" Peter joked back as Toby jumped in behind Rose.

"Which way do we go?" Danny, at the front of them, asked Zachary down his wrist communicator.

"Just go straight ahead keep going till I say so" Zachary replied. Just as Jefferson was climbing into the hole himself, putting the grade back in place as he went, the Ood burst through door twenty five.

Crawling on their hands and knees all anyone could see was the rear end of the person in front.

"Not your best angle Peter" Rose joked, looking at his backside.

"Oi! Most girls would love to be in you place right now" He called back.

"I don't know it could be worse" Toby said as he crawled behind Rose.  
"Oi!" She shouted back.

"Straight on until you find junction seven point one, keep breathing I'm feeding you air I've got you" Zachary called, guiding them via his 3D map of the tunnels.

Reaching a sealed doorway everyone stopped and sat down against the wall and caught their breaths.

"We're at seven point one sir" Danny called to Zachary.

"Ok I've got you, I'm just air rating your position" Zachary as the Ood cut another bolt through his door.

"Getting kinda crammed sir can't you hurry it up?" Danny asked.  
"I'm working on half power here" Zachary told him.

"Stop complaining," Mr Jefferson said.

"Mr Jefferson says stop complaining" Rose told Danny.

"I heard" Danny groaned back.

"He heard!" Rose jokingly told Jefferson.

"Ok well the air's getting a bit thin" Toby told Zachary.

"He's complaining now" Rose said.

"I heard" Jefferson replied. Peter suddenly wrinkled his nose up in disgust and began coughing as everyone caught a whiff of a bad smell.

"Oh Danny is that you?" Peter asked, his words muffled as he covered his mouth and nose with his hands.

"I'm not exactly happy" He replied, wiping his forehead.

"And I don't exactly wanna choke on your stink! Makes death by Ood look desirable" Peter gasped as his sensitive nose got the worse of the smell.

"I'm just moving the air, got to oxygenate the next section now keep calm or it's going to feel worse" Zachary told them. Suddenly banging noises rang out from somewhere else in the tunnel. Jefferson turned around so that he was sat facing the way they'd come he aimed his gun.

"What was that?" Danny asked.

"Mr Jefferson what was that?" Rose also asked.  
"What's that noise?" Toby asked.

"Sounds like someone else is in the tunnel wait, no, more that one, quite a few actually" Peter said as he listed carefully.

"Captain what was that?" Jefferson asked Zachary.

"Junction in habitation five is opening, must be the Ood" He replied. The Ood were in the tunnel and were moving fast. "They're in the tunnels" Zachary confirmed.

"Well open the gate!" Danny said, starting to panic.

"I gotta get the air in" Zachary told him.

"Just open it! Sir" Danny cried.  
"Where are they? Are they close?" Rose asked.

"I don't know I can't tell I can't see them! The computer doesn't register the Ood as proper lifeforms" Zachary replied.  
"Who's idea was that?" Rose asked. "Peter can you hear...?" She then began to ask him

"Shush, everyone quiet for a second" He told her and the others. Everyone fell silent for a moment as Peter then listened to the banging noises. "They're close, very close we've got minutes" He confirmed.

"Open the gate!" Danny shouted down his wrist communicator at Zachary. Just then the gate opened before everyone scrambled through it.  
"Danny turn left, immediate left!" Zachary said.

"The Ood sir? Can't you trap them? Cut off the air?" Jefferson asked as he followed the others backwards so that he could keep his gun aimed at the tunnel behind them.

"Not without cutting off yours" Zachary replied. "Danny turn right, go right, go faster Danny! They're going to catch up!" He then shouted at Danny.  
"I'll maintain a defensive position!" Jefferson called as he stopped and sat facing the empty tunnel.

"You can't stop!" Rose shouted as she stopped by a corner.

"Rose that's my job!" He shouted back.

"Let me help stop them!" Peter called as he came back around the corner.

"You defend the group Peter, stay with them," Jefferson replied.

"But..." Peter began to protest.  
"You've got your task so see to it!" Jefferson told him.

"You heard what he said now shift!" Toby told Peter, who reluctantly carried on. A moment later the first Ood came into sight and right into the aim of Jefferson, who immediately began firing.

As the others reached another sealed gate they could hear the continuous rattle of Jefferson's machine gun.

"Eight point two, open eight point two Zac! Open eight point two!" Danny told Zachary urgently.  
"Gotta aerate it" Zachary reminded him.

"Open it now!" Danny shouted back.  
"I'm trying!" Zachary shouted. Danny had started to panic as he began to bash against the gate in a desperate attempt to open it up.

"Danny stop it! It's not helping" Peter told him sharply, pulling his arm away from the gate and stopping him.

"Zac get it open!" Toby then said down his wrist communicator.

"Jefferson I gotta open eight point two by closing eight point one, you've got to get past the junction now move" Zachary told Jefferson. But Jefferson was still firing at the odd, throwing aside his machine gun when it ran out of ammunition in favor of a hand gun. "That's an order now move!" Zachary shouted at him. "I gotta aerate the oxygen now move! I can't stop the automatics!" He added as Jefferson abandoned his gun and scrambled back towards the others. The gate at eight point two slide open before the others quickly went through it. "Danny turn left and head for nine point two that's the last one" Zachary said. "Jefferson you've gotta move faster! John move it!" He then shouted as the gate in front of Jefferson began sliding back down.

"Mr Jefferson come on!" Rose shouted as she and Peter lingered to watch. But Jefferson wasn't quick enough. The door in front of his clicked shut, leaving him trapped. Sitting against it he gave a frustrated sigh.

"Regret to inform sir I was a bit slow" He told Zachary. "Not so fast these days" He joked.

"I can't open eight point one John not without losing the air for the others" Zachary told him.

"And quite right too sir, I think I bought them a little time" Jefferson replied. Rose and Peter had ventured back to the eight point one gate whilst the others had stopped just at the corner leading away from eight point two.

"There's nothing I can do John I'm sorry" Zachary told Jefferson.

"You've done enough sir, made a very good captain under the circumstances" Jefferson replied.

"Mr Jefferson? Can you hear me?" Peter called.

"Yes, loud and clear" Jefferson replied.  
"What about my gun? I could try and cut through the gate?" Peter suggested to both him and Zachary.

"The air would get sucked out of your section, not mention the Ood getting through" Zachary replied.

"Well we have to try something?" Rose asked desperately.  
"Nothing to be done Rose, you two just keep carrying on with the others" Jefferson replied.

"We can't just leave you! There must be something? If we could just, Ah!" Peter said with a frustrated cry as he lashed out a foot at the gate and smashed against it. It had dented from the force but no where near enough to open it. Knowing it was no good and that they were going to lose someone else Rose and Peter sat back against the wall.

"Captain sir, I have to say you made a very good captain under the circumstances" Jefferson replied. "I ask if you can't add oxygen to this section can you speed up the processes of it's removal?" He asked.

"I don't understand? What do you mean?" Zachary asked.

"Well, if I'm to choose the manner of my departure sir, lack of air seems more natural then well, lets say death by Ood" Jefferson replied as the Ood came into sight and stopped just down the tunnel from him. "I'd appropriate it sir" Jefferson added a little urgently, knowing the Ood were only moments away from killing him.

"God speed Mr Jefferson" Zachary told him.

"Thank you sir" Jefferson replied. Zachary then removed the oxygen from the section of tunnel and watched as Jefferson's life signal vanished from the screen in front of him.


	4. Chapter 4

The others were left sitting in silence after Jefferson's death.

"Report, officer John Maynard Jefferson PKD deceased with honors, forty three K two point one" Jefferson called out as Rose and Peter rejoined Danny and Toby.

"Zac, we're at the final junction, nine point two" Danny said quietly down his wrist communicator. "And er, if my respects could be on record? He saved our lives" He added.

"Noted, opening nine point two" Zachary replied as he opened up the gate. But as the gate opened everyone saw the group of Ood behind it.

"Lower nine point two! Zac! Lower it!" Rose shouted as she, Peter, Danny and Toby all scrambled away from them and back the way they'd come.

"Back! Back! Back!" Danny added as the gate began to close

"We can't go back! Eight point two's sealed! We're stuck!" Toby called as they stopped dead whilst the Ood were beginning to push the nine point two gate back up. Looking up, however, Peter saw a grated floor covering above him.  
"Come on! Up!" He shouted as he rammed it open and climbed up, finding himself in one of the corridors. Standing besides the hole he then helped Rose and Danny up and bent down to help Toby up too. Just as Toby was about to climb out the Ood pushed open the gate and raced towards him. "Come on! Toby! Come on!" Peter shouted reaching down an arm into the tunnel where he could see the back of Toby just beyond the hole's opening. Toby looked up at them for a moment before looking back down to see that the Ood were right next to him now. But as Toby's eyes turned red and he held a finger to his lips, the Ood stopped in their tracks.

"Toby get out of there!" Rose shouted.

"Help me! Oh my god help me!" Toby shouted as he turned back around and grabbed hold of Peter's arm. As Peter pulled him out Rose and Danny covered the tunnel back up so that the Ood couldn't reach them. Suddenly the door behind them opened up as more Ood came through.  
"It's this way!" Danny called, leading them in the opposite direction.

In the control room the Ood were still trying to cut through Zachary's door.  
"Hurry up!" He called to the others as he tightened his grip on his bolt gun.

Reaching Ood habitation Danny made straight for the telepathic field machine.

"Get it in!" Rose said urgently as they spotted more Ood on the level below. "Transmit!" Rose added as Danny fumbled for the chip board.

"I'm trying! I'm trying! I'm getting at it, just a sec" He said he searched for it whilst the Ood below started walking up the stairs.

In the control room the Ood had finally cut through the door and spilled into the room. Zachary jumped to the other side of the room and held out his bolt gun.

The Ood in Ood habitation were nearly at the same level as Rose, Peter, Danny and Toby now.

"Danny get that thing transmitting!" Peter shouted as he stood closest to the Ood with his gun out and ready to fire, though he was reluctant to do so given that if he missed the Ood the shot could puncture a hole in the base's hull and suck all the air out from them. Danny inserted the chip board into the machine which then dropped the basic level from one hundred to zero. Immediately the Ood all across the base clutched their heads as a whirring sound could be heard. They all then fell to the floor and were rendered unconscious.

"You did it" Rose told Danny. "We did it!" She then cried joyfully as she hugged him, Peter and Toby before picking up the machines speaker. "Zac we did it, the Ood are down now we've gotta get the Doctor" She said down it.

"I'm on my way" Zachary replied as he left the control room whilst everyone else ran out of Ood habitation.

The Doctor was still being lowered into the pit by the winch.

"You get representations of the horned beast right across the universe in myths and legends of a million worlds, Earth, Draconian, Valterdean, Deimos, it's the same image over and over again, maybe that idea came from somewhere? Bleeding through?" He theorised to Ida via his helmet communications. "The thought of every mind" He added.

"Emanating from here?" Ida asked.

"Could be" The Doctor replied.

"But if this is the original does that make it real? Does that make it the actual devil?" Ida asked.

"Well if that's what you wanna believe, maybe that's what the devil is in the end, an idea" He replied. Just the the winch ran out of cable and came to a halt, stopping the Doctor.

"That's it, that's all we've got" Ida told him. "You getting any sort of read out?" She asked as the Doctor checked wrist dial.

"Nothing, there could be miles to go yet" He replied as he looked down at the darkness. "Or? Could be thirty feet, there's no way of telling" He added before he paused. "I could survive thirty feet" He said quietly to himself.  
"Oh no you don't! I'm pulling you back up" Ida told him as she started up the winch to pull him back up. But the Doctor pressed his winch clip button and stopped himself going up any further. "What are you doing?" Ida asked him as she walked over to the edge of the pit.

"You bring me back we're just going to sit there and run out of air, I've gotta go down" He told her.

"But you can't, Doctor you can't!" Ida said.  
"Call it an act of faith" He said as he began unclasping himself.  
"I don't wanna die on my own" Ida told him.

"I know," The Doctor replied before he continued unfastening himself from his harness.

Rose, Peter, Danny and Toby had reach the lift shaft where Rose ran for the speaker.

"Doctor are you there? Doctor? Ida? Are you there?" She asked just as Zachary joined them.

"The coms are still down, I can patch them through the central desk and boost the signal just give me a minute" He said as he came over and began typing at the console.

The Doctor was still unfastening himself from the cable.

"I didn't ask, have you got any sort of faith?" He asked Ida, who was sat on the edge of the pit's edge.

"Not really, I was brought up near Neoclassic Congregational cause of my mum she was..." Ida began replying but trailed off. "My old mum," She then said sadly as her thoughts turned to her. "But no I never believed" She replied.

"Neoclassic's? Have they got a devil?" The Doctor asked.

"No not as such just er, the things that men do" Ida replied.

"Same thing in the end" The Doctor said.  
"What about you?" Ida asked. The Doctor paused and thought for a moment.

"I, believe, I believe I haven't seen everything, I don't know," He replied. "It's funny isn't it? The things you make up, the rules, if that thing had said it came from beyond the universe I'd have believed it but before the universe? Impossible, doesn't fit my rule" He added. "See that's why I keep travelling, to be proved wrong" He said as he came to the last clip holding him up. "Thank you Ida" He told her.  
"Don't go!" Ida called back, standing up and looking back down into the pit.

"If they get back in touch, if you talk to Rose or Peter, just tell them, tell them," The Doctor tried to say. "Tell Peter he'll be fine no matter what's ahead of him," He said. "And tell Rose that I, well, that I," He tried to say again. "Oh she knows" He added before unfastening the last clip and allowing himself to fall down into the darkness.

"Doctor are you there?" Rose's voice suddenly came through the helmet communications. "Doctor? Ida? Can you hear me? Are you there Doctor?" She asked.

"He's gone" Ida replied quietly. Rose froze for a moment.  
"What do you mean he's gone?" She asked.  
"He fell, into the pit, and I don't know how deep it is, miles and miles and miles" Ida told her.  
"What do you mean he fell?" Rose asked, confusion clouding the realisation.

"I couldn't stop him," Ida replied. "He said your name, yours and Peter's" She added as comfortingly as she could. Rose numbly let the arm holding the speaker lower down as Zachary took hold of the speaker.

"I'm sorry" He told her and Peter, who looked just as shocked and upset as Rose did. Rose stood where she was for a moment before looking back at Peter.  
"He can't be, he isn't" She said tearfully. Peter took a deep breath himself and seemed to want to say something before he changed is mind. Rose gave a little gasp before going over to him.  
"No your right," He told her as he held her in a hug. "We just have just trust that he's ok, it's the Doctor we're talking about, he'll be fine" He reassured as best he could.

"Can't you? Sense him or something? Tell he's fine by instinct?" Rose asked in the off chance.

"I'm sorry, it only works with family, mum dad and Alison" Peter replied, sounding more upset now as he realised he may never see them again. Rose looked up at him.  
"Are they...?" She tried to ask.  
"They're fine, they're ok" Peter replied as he took a few breaths to calm himself.

"Ida? There's no way of reaching you, no cable no back up, your ten miles down, we can't get there" Zachary then told Ida down the speaker.

"You should see this place Zac, it's beautiful" She replied as she sat back down on the edge of the pit and looked around. "I wanted to discover things, and here I am" She added tearfully.

"We've gotta abandon the base, I'm declaring this mission unsafe, all we can do is make sure no one ever comes here again" Zachary told her. Ida nodded as she fought back the tears.

"But we'll never find out what it was" She replied.

"Maybe that's best" Zachary told her.  
"Yeah" Ida agreed. Zachary paused for a moment.  
"Officer Scot..." He began to say.

"It's all right, just go" Ida cut in. "Good luck" She told them.

"And you" Zachary replied before he put the speaker down. "Danny, Toby, close down the feed links, get the retrench tropes online, then get to the rocket and strap yourselves in, we're leaving" He then ordered.

"I'm not going" Rose told him as she stepped away from Peter and stood facing Zachary.

"Rose there's space for you, Peter you too" Zachary told her and Peter.

"No, we're going to wait for the Doctor" Peter replied, leaning against the wall, as he looked to Zachary.

"Just like he'd wait for us" Rose added, looking to Peter with a smile at his loyalty as he nodded back.

"I'm sorry but, he's dead" Zachary told them.  
"You don't know him, cause he's not, I'm telling you is not," Rose replied sounding upset again. "Even if he was, just can't leave him all on his own all the way down there, no I'm going to stay" She told him.

"And I'm not leaving either of them" Peter added determinedly. Zachary nodded.

"Then I apologise for this," He told them. "Danny, Toby make them secure" He then ordered. Before Rose or Peter could react Danny had taken hold of Rose and Toby had grabbed Peter as they pulled out small pen like sticks. Both putting up a fight only Peter managed to avoid the device as he got away from Toby just as an unconscious Rose was being lowered to the ground by Danny.

"What have you done!?" He asked Zachary angrily as he knelt besides her.

"It's just a tranquilliser she'll be fine, but I have lost too many people and I am not leaving you two behind" Zachary replied, holding his hand up to stop Toby from trying to knock Peter out too. "Now you can carry her to the rocket and save both your lives or we'll just knock you out too and carry both of you" He added firmly. Peter shot him a glare before he made up his mind and scooped Rose up into his arms and carried her as he reluctantly followed the others.

Coming onto a corridor they found a number of Ood lying on the floor. One of them jerked slightly.

"Did that one just move?" Toby asked, pointing to it as it opened it's eyes and stirred slightly.

"It's the telepathic field, it's reasserting itself" Danny replied.

"Move it get to the rocket move!" Zachary ordered before they started running past and over the awakening Ood.


	5. Chapter 5

The Doctor came around slowly and groggily. The first thing that he noticed when he sat up and opened his eyes was that his helmet's visor had smashed, leaving his face exposed to the elements. Instinctively he gasped and clutched it but found that he could breath, there was air.  
"I'm breathing," He said to himself before he took off the helmet and dropped it on the floor. "Air cushion to support the fall," He added. He then switched on his wrist communicator that was attached to his suit. "You can breath down here Ida" He told her. All he got, however, was scrambled signal noises. "Can you read me Ida?" He asked as no response came.

The remaining crew, Rose and Peter were now all strapped into their seats on board the rocket.

"Dislocating B clamp, C clamp raising blue-nitro to max rotation, Toby how's the Negapact feed-line?" Zachary asked from where he was sat at the front of the cockpit with Danny sat in the co-pilot seat next to him as Rose, Peter and Toby sat in the row behind.

"Clear and ready to go sir" Toby replied as he checked the screen in front of him.

"For god sake get us out of here!" Danny then told Zachary urgently just as Rose was coming around.

"Captain I think we're going to have a problem passenger" Toby said as he and Peter saw her stir.

"Peter keep her under control" Zachary replied.

"Where? Peter what?" Rose tried to asked as she came around.

"Shush easy Rose, your ok" Peter told her. Rose then seemed to realise where they all were.

"No! I'm not going anywhere! Get me out of here!" She then shouted as she tried to unfasten her seat belt.

"Rose, Rose! There is nothing we can do!" Peter told her sharply as he grabbed her hands and held them down on their chair's armrest.

"You were going to stay too! Why didn't you tell them to let us stay!?" She asked, sounding angry as she continued to struggle, though she was unable to free her hands from underneath Peter's.  
"I had no choice! It was either carry you here or be dragged on as well" He told her. Rose stopped struggling at this but still looked upset.

"And, lift off!" Zachary suddenly called as the rocket began shaking violently as it took off.

Ida heard the rumble of the rocket and looked up as did the Doctor.

"The rocket" He said quietly to himself.

Having had her hand released by Peter, Rose sat quietly in her seat before she spotted a nearby bolt gun and grabbed it.

"Take me back to the planet, take me back!" She shouted to Zachary.  
"Or what?" He replied without turning around.

"Or I'll shoot" Rose replied, though she didn't sound confident. Zachary then turned around.

"Would you though? Would you really? Is that what your Doctor would want?" He asked her. Rose hesitated and lowered the gun slightly.

"No it isn't" Peter said seriously as he took the bolt gun off her and threw it onto a nearby surface that was out of her reach as he looked her dead in the eye, a silent warning not to try another stunt like that again.

"I'm sorry but it's too late anyway, take a look outside, we can't turn back, this what the Doctor would have wanted, isn't that right?" Zachary then said. Rose looked out of the window next to her as saw that the black hole and the planet were rapidly getting smaller and smaller as the rocket got further away.

The Doctor had found some very peculiar cave drawings on the wall of a red horned creature terrorising groups of people.

"History of some big battle, man against beast, I don't know if your getting this Ida I hope so," He said. "Anyway they defeated the beast and imprisoned it," He added as he turned round and saw a golden coloured vase standing on a narrow stand. Looking back at the drawing he saw two vase images and turned back. He then noticed another identical vase on an identical stand parallel to the first. "Maybe that's the key" He said as he walked over to them. Touching the nearest vase it began to glow before the other one did the same. "Or the gate or the bars" The Doctor added as he stepped into the middle of them. A low grumble suddenly sounded from the dark cavern in front of him. What the Doctor had originally taken as a rock formation suddenly moved as a huge horned head appeared. With chains shackling it's monstrously huge wrists and neck the beast rose up to it's full height. The Doctor stood frozen in the impossibility of the sight in front of him as he saw the blood red skinned creature bear it's razor fangs at him.

On board the rocket Toby had started quietly chuckling.

"What's the joke?" Peter said sharply, still upset from having to have left the Doctor behind. Toby looked to him for a moment.  
"Just, we made it, we escaped we actually did it" He replied.

"Not all of us" Rose told him equally sternly.

"We're not out of it yet, still the first people in history to fly away from a black hole, Toby read me the stats" Zachary said. Toby, who was still grinning broadly, looked up at his screen.

"Gravity funnel holding sir, oh it's holding" He said through his grin.

The Doctor was still staring at the beast.

"I accept that you exist, I don't have to accept what you are but your physical existence I'll give you that" He told it as it growled. "Am I to understand that I was expected down here?" He asked it, stepping forward to the edge of the cliff he was on. "I was given a safe landing and air, you need me for something? What for?" He asked. The beast merely growled again and reached for him but was stopped by it's chains. "Have I got to? I don't know beg an audience? Or is there a ritual? Some sort of incantation or summons or spell? All of these this I don't believe in, are they real?" The Doctor continued to question. The beast still did not answer. "Speak to me! Tell me! You won't talk? Or you can't talk?" The Doctor then guessed. "Hold on hold on, wait a minute just let me, oh! No! Yes! No!Think it through! You spoke before I heard your voice, intelligent voice no more than that! Brilliant! But looking at you now all I can see is the beast" He deduced as the beast growled again, showing it's forked snake like tongue. "The animal, just the body, your just the body! The physical form! What's happened to your mind? Where's it gone? Where's that intelligence?" He then asked it before he realised something and remembered who, along with the Ood, Peter had said had been possessed by it earlier. "Oh no" He said quietly as he looked skywards.

Toby was looking up at his screen.  
"Stats are at fifty three, funnel stable at fifty six point five, hub pressure constant, smooth and we can sir all the way back home, coordinates set for planet Earth" He told Zachary with a small smile.

The Doctor had turned back to the cave drawings.

"You were imprisoned? Long time ago? Before the universe, after sideways in between doesn't matter, but the prison is perfect! It's absolute! It's eternal! Oh yes! Open the prison the gravity field collapses! This planet falls into the black hole!" He realised as he looked at the drawings before coming back over to the beast. "You escape you die! Brilliant! But that's just the body, the body is trapped that's all! The devil is an idea, in all those civilisations just an idea, but an idea is hard to kill an idea can escape, the mind! The mind of the great beast! The mind can escape!" He told it. "Oh but that's it! You didn't give me air your jailers did! They set this up all those years ago! They need me alive because if your escaping then I'm going to stop you!" He taunted it. The beast roared ferociously and tried to lunge for him, stopped once again by it's chains. The Doctor picked up a nearby rock and went over to one of the vases. "If I destroy your prison your body is destroyed, your mind with it?" He guessed as he lifted the rock up and readied himself to smash the vase. Then the horrible realisation dawned on him as he looked back to the beast and dropped the rock. "But then your clever enough to use this whole system against me," He said as he walked over to the vase. "If I destroy this planet I destroy the gravity field, the rocket, the rocket loses protection and falls into the black hole, I'll have to sacrifice Rose and Peter" He realised as the beast began laughing.

Peter was sat forward in his seat holding the side of his head with his hand.

"What is it?" Rose asked, seeing his serious expression.

"It doesn't make sense we escaped but there was a thousand ways it could have killed us, it could have ripped out the air? Or, I don't know? Burnt us? Or anything but it let us go? Why?" He asked.

"Unless it wanted us to escape?" He added quietly.

"Hey Peter do us a favour?" Toby asked as he monitored the screen in front of him. Peter turned to looked at him. "Shut up" Toby told him.

"I'm just saying that creatures like that, things that powerful don't just let people go, life is worthless to them and they'd rather see it end than get away from them" Peter carried on regardless.

"Then it's missed it's chance to" Toby told him casually.

"Maybe, maybe it's just waiting for something" Peter said quietly.

"Almost there, we'll be beyond the reach of the black hole in forty, thirty nine," Toby then said, changing the subject, as he looked back up at his screen.

The Doctor was stood facing the beast.  
"So that's the trap? Or the test? Or the final judgement? I don't know," He asked it. "But if I kill you I kill them" He added as then beast laughed again. "Except that implies, in this big grand scheme of gods and devils, that they're just victims, but I've seen a lot of this universe I've seen fake gods and bad gods and demigods and would be gods and out of all of that out of all that pantheon, if I believe in one thing, just one thing, I believe in them!" He then told it before picking up the rock he'd dropped as he then smashed one of the vases.

The rocket suddenly jerked and began to rattle violently as an alarm went off.

"What happened!? What was that!?" Danny asked.

"What is he doing!? What is he doing!?" Toby asked, indicating Zachary.

"We've lost the funnel! Gravity collapse!" Zachary told them.  
"What does that mean!?" Rose asked as she clung to her seat.  
"We can't escape! We're heading straight for the black hole!" Zachary called back as the rocket lost momentum as it began being pulled towards the black hole.

The Doctor smashed the other vase before dropping the rock and turning back to beast with a grin.  
"This is your freedom! Free to die! Your going into that black hole and I'm riding with you!" He told it as the beast's body began to writhe as flames burst from it's skin.

Rose was looking out of the window.  
"It's the planet, the planet's moving, it's falling" She told the others. Peter was also looking in the windows direction when he suddenly tensed up. His wolf side was telling him he was in danger. There was no need to ask why or how. Danger was simply there. Turning round he saw it. The beast had repossessed Toby, giving him the blood red eyes and symbolised skin.

"I am the rage and the bile and veracity!" It declared.

"It's Toby! Zac it's Toby! Do something! Zac do something!" Rose shouted as she also turned around and saw him as did Danny from the front of the ship.

"I am the prince and the flame and the death and the sin! And the darkness!" The beast then said.  
"Zac! It's him! It's him! It's him!" Danny said in a panic. Suddenly the beast sat bolt right up and let out a breath of flame as Rose and Peter lent as far away as they could away from it.

"What is he!? What the hell is he!?" Zachary gasped, not able to look around due to holding onto the rocket's controls.

The Doctor watched as the beast's body began burning up whilst the planet around him rumbled as it fell towards the black hole.

On board the rocket the beast had now taken full possession of Toby.

"I shall never die! The thought of me is forever! In the bleeding hearts of men! In their vanity and obsession of lust!" It declared. But Peter had taken noticed of the bolt gun lying on the nearby surface and made a move to grab it. But in doing so he reached right in front of the beast and it noticed what he was trying to do. With a growl it grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and yanked him back into his seat, grabbing the bolt gun at the same time. It then delivered a viscous blow to the side of Peter's head as Rose let out a yell at seeing him slump in his seat. Clearly, however, the beast had thought this had been enough to stop him as it threw the bolt gun onto the floor and out of reach of anyone including itself. It seemed surprised then when Peter sat back up. There was a large cut on the side of a blackened eye but he didn't appear to feel it as his eye's lit up in a silvery glow whilst his canine teeth grew and his nose wrinkled up as his fuming wolf side surfaced.  
"Not a smart move" He growled at it before he reached down to his belt sheath and slipped out his own gun.  
"Nothing shall never destroy me! Nothing!" The beast declared as it looked forward again, not seeing what Peter was about to do as he raised up his gun towards the cockpit's window.

"Go to hell!" He told it before he fired a single shot.


	6. Chapter 6

The window smashed, exposing everyone to the vacuum of space, though their seat belts were keeping them from being sucked out. Knowing he only had seconds Peter grabbed hold of the seat belt securing the beast and broke it with a single jerk. The beast was flung out of the cockpit and out towards the black hole with a final bloodcurdling scream.

"Emergency shields!" Zachary then shouted as he pulled down on a level. Another plate of glass rose up, forming a new window as they watched the beast and Toby's body fall towards the black hole. But the rocket was still being pulled towards it too. "We've still lost the gravity funnel, we can't escape the black hole!" Zachary told them.

"But we stopped him, that's what the Doctor would have done" Peter replied as he sat back in his seat and clutched the side of his head where he'd been struck as he felt the affects of the blow.

"Some victory!" Zachary said back. "We're going in" He admitted as the rocket hurtled toward the black hole.

The beast's body was now burning all over as the Doctor was buffeted back by falling rocks overhead.

On the rocket's screen it showed the planet nearing the black hole.

"The planet's lost orbit! It's falling!" Danny called out.

In the base the now unprocessed Ood were sat huddled together as the planet fell whilst Ida, who's suit had run out oxygen, slowly fell down to the ground unconsciously besides the pit. Running from the cavern the Doctor was suddenly knocked off his feel by a sudden jet of steam and hit something solid. Looking up, however, he began chuckling. He fallen into the Tardis.

The screen showing the planet's orbit suddenly began beeping as the plant fell into the black hole just before the signal went dead.  
"The planet's gone!" Danny said. "I'm sorry" He added, turning back to Rose and Peter, who both knew what it meant.

"Accelerate," Zachary told the computer. "I'm sorry, I did my best, but hey first people to fall inside a black hole it's, how about that, history" He told everyone. No one replied as they all held on and braced themselves for the end. Suddenly, however, the violent jerking stopped as did the rocket.

"What happened?" Rose asked quietly. Just then they felt the rocket turn.

"We're turning? We're turning around? We're turning away?"Zachary realised as he looked to one of his screens. Suddenly the coms came back into life.  
"Sorry about the highjack captain this is the good ship Tardis" The Doctor's voice came through as the Tardis's whirring could be heard in the back ground. Standing in the console room he had a finger pressed down on one of the buttons. "Now first things first have you got a Rose Tyler and Peter Argent on board?" He asked.

"We're here! Oh my god" Rose chuckled as a broad grin spread over her's and Peter's faces.  
"Both of us! Where are you?" Peter asked.  
"I'm just towing you home, gravity smavity my people practically invented black holes well, if fact they did, couple of minutes we'll be nice and safe" The Doctor replied. "Oh and captain? Can we do a swap? Well more of a two for one kinda deal? Say if you give me Rose Tyler and Peter Argent I'll give you Ida Scott? How about that?" He then offered as he looked to Ida, who was sat unconsciously on the nearby chairs.

"She's alive!" Zachary cried out as Danny gasped in joy.

"Yeah, but of oxygen starvation but she should be all right," The Doctor replied. "I couldn't save the Ood, I only had time for one trip, they went down with the planet" He then said. Just then the Tardis console beeped. "Ah! Entering clear space, end of the line, mission closed" He told them as the Tardis stopped pulling the rocket as it came back under it's own power.

Coming through the Tardis's door Rose and Peter saw the Doctor stood by the console, still in his space suit. Smiling as he he saw his companions he came forward as they ran over to him. Rose ran into his arms as he picked her up off the ground. After a moment he lowered her back down and looked to Peter.  
"Oh what happened here?" He asked him, indicating his blackened eye and cut. Peter shrugged.  
"Well you take down the devil your gonna get a few war wounds" He said casually before grinning broadly as did the Doctor before they shared a hug too.

Ida was back with her crew in the rocket's cockpit.

"I don't know, I can't remember," She told Danny and Zachary as they bombarded her with questions.  
"Well it looked like a box" Danny said.  
"What do you mean a box?" Zachary asked.

"Down in the hold, a big blue box, it just appeared, I don't know" Danny replied, having seen the ship arrive on camera. The coms suddenly came back into life.

"Zac? We'll be off now, have a good trip home," The Doctor, now back in his suit, told them from the console room as Rose and Peter stood either side of him. "And the next time you get curious about something, oh, what's the point they'll just go blundering in, the human race" The Doctor added.

"But Doctor what did you find down there? That creature? What was it?" Ida asked.

"I don't know, never did decipher that writing, but that's good, day I knew everything might as well stop" He replied.  
"What do you think it was? Really?" Rose asked as she and Peter looked to him.

"I think, we beat it and that's good enough for me" He replied.  
"It said I was going to die in battle" Rose told him quietly. The Doctor and Peter both looked at her for a moment.

"Then it lied" The Doctor told her reassuringly.  
"Besides do you really think anything can get to you with us two here?" Peter added with a smile as Rose cheered back up.

"Right! Onwards upwards! Ida? See you again maybe?" The Doctor then called.  
"I hope so" Ida replied.

"And thanks boys" Rose added.

"Yeah look after yourselves, no more impossibly dangerous missions" Peter also called.

"Hang on though Doctor? You never really said, you three? Who are you?" Ida asked.

"Oh," The Doctor said as he looked to his companions. "The stuff of legend" He replied before he sent the Tardis back into the time vortex.

"Right I'm going to go change I think, those tunnels really stunk" Rose said once they were into their flight before running out of the console room and towards the back rooms of the ship. Left alone the Doctor piloted the ship whilst Peter took a seat on the nearby moth eaten chairs as he examined his head.

"Want anything for that?" The Doctor asked, seeing him rub it.

"Na, it'll heal before then" Peter joked back, echoing the Doctor's earlier words.

"You wanted treatment the last time" The Doctor joked, remembering Peter's sudden fondness of Scooti. Peter gave a small light.

"Was I that obvious?" He asked. The Doctor merely shrugged and turned back to the console.

"I heard it before, what it said to you," He then told Peter carefully as he turned back around to face him. "Are you...?" He began to ask.  
"I'm fine, it got the wrong end of the stick and everything else was completely muddled up" Peter replied with a shrug. The Doctor nodded and began turning back to the console. "Except," Peter spoke up again, making him look back around to see that he'd become very worried all of a sudden.

"The last bit, it said I'd face the dark bird's return" Peter continued as he stood up and walked over to the console. "You know who it meant don't you?" He asked.

"Rasputin" The Doctor replied. Peter nodded.

"It said he might not be dead" He told him.

"Do you believe that? What does your instincts say?" The Doctor asked. Peter considered for a moment.

"That he can't be alive, he got buried right in front of us, he died" He replied. "But I could be wrong, he was slippery enough that I'd imagine he tried to avoid death by any means, it's only my gut telling me he didn't succeed" He added.

"The same gut that sensed the beast before it made itself know? Changed my mind? Kept Rose alive? And, in the end, killed off an entire universal fear?" The Doctor asked him with a smile. Peter smiled back.  
"Yeah that same one" He replied as he realised what he'd helped do.

"Sounds like it's in full working order" The Doctor told him reassuringly.

On board the rocket Zachary had brought out a speaker.

"This is the final report of sanctuary base six, officer Tobias Zed deceased with honors, forty three K two point one," He said aloud. "Also Ood one alpha one deceased with honors, Ood one alpha two with honors," He then said as he began naming every Ood on the base as the rocket flew through the clear starry space.


End file.
